The Power of Read-Alouds and Bedtime Stories at Any Age

Did you know that it’s impossible to grow out of bedtime stories and read-alouds?

In fact, reading aloud to younger kids brings them a sense of security, reading aloud with older kids brings deeper parent-child relationships, and reading aloud with your spouse can be really fun too.

This was a new revelation for me last summer. I had been taking my boys to the library since they were born, and we would always come home with stacks of books. Reading picture books aloud together when they were little was a powerful bonding tool for us. But when they got old enough to read confidently on their own, I stopped reading anything aloud to them that wasn’t connected to school, and last summer I started to feel the disconnection set in. That all changed when I read The Read Aloud Family by Sarah Mackenzie and started to connect with her community of parents who are committed to reading aloud to their kids no matter the age. What a difference this has made for us!

Want to know how to get started?

It’s simple. Just ask the kids in your life which book they want to read aloud together and start reading aloud just a few minutes every night before bed. Or, select a book you know everyone loves and start reading it aloud together anytime. Pretty soon they'll be asking for just one more chapter or just one more book at all kinds of times during the day!

If that's not really your style, sign up for Audible and pop on an audiobook for a while once a week or when you're in the car together.

Or, if your kids are resistant at first (like my 12-year-old last summer), listen to books and podcasts right by yourself or with your spouse and let them know how much fun they're missing. After listening, you can share stories and book recommendations or strike up a conversation about a book you've both read and watch the connection happen. Or, as Sarah mentions in her book, you can pop on an audiobook for yourself in the car and see which kid gets interested in the story with you. 

Start small and set something in motion. Then watch it grow - I know it will.

The folks over at the Read Aloud Revival have loads of outstanding free booklists, ideas for all ages, and more! One of the best things I've learned over there is about how to build a Book Club culture in your home. (Here's the link to her podcast episode about it.)

But how can we do this when we're already so overwhelmed and busy?

(Yep, I heard you through the computer screen)

I had the same fears as well, but actually, in our family, read-alouds have helped us manage the overwhelm. 

Here's an example: When we have a really busy day planned, we put on our audiobook while we're eating breakfast or while we're riding in the car, and just like magic, we're all whisked away to another world in two seconds flat and we have something new we're bonding over. Even if we only have 5-10 minutes, that's all it takes for everyone to build a connection that day.

My boys are teens and tweens right now, and we have had so much fun family time reading aloud together this year. Right now we have quite a few read-aloud books going. At night, we like to cuddle up and read a story from the Action Bible. During the day while riding in the car we've been listening to Rick Riordan's Trials of Apollo series. And during school, we’re taking turns reading aloud from The Boys in the Boat Young Readers Edition, Eleanor Roosevelt's You Learn by Living (my favorite!), Robert Cave's 100 Greatest Scientific Experiments (renamed Why It's Not All Rocketscience), and Sean Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. 

I seriously cannot tell you how much connection has been restored to our family through reading aloud just since last summer! I hope it does the same for your tribe.

Which read-alouds do you love in your family?

Hop into the email group and tell us about it! We're always looking for new titles to add to our list.